" 



THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES." 321 



were to become acquainted with a country, hitherto 

 unknown, as rich in novel forms of life as Brazil or 

 South Africa once were to Europeans. Indeed, the 

 fossil fauna of the Western Territories of America bids 

 fair to exceed in interest and importance all other 

 known Tertiary deposits put together ; and yet, with 

 the exception of the case of the American tertiaries, 

 these investigations have extended over very limited 

 areas ; and, at Pikermi, were confined to an extremely 

 small space. 



Such appear to me to be the chief events in the 

 history of the progress of knowledge during the last 

 twenty years, which account for the changed feeling 

 with which the doctrine of evolution is at present 

 regarded by those who have followed the advance of 

 biological science, in respect of those problems which 

 bear indirectly upon that doctrine. 



But all this remains mere secondary evidence. It 

 may remove dissent, but it does not compel assent. 

 Primary and direct evidence in favour of evolution 

 can be furnished only by palaeontology. The geologi- 

 cal record, so soon as it approaches completeness, 

 must, when properly questioned, yield either an 

 affirmative or a negative answer : if evolution has 

 taken place, there will its mark be left ; if it has not 

 taken place, there will lie its refutation. 



What was the state of matters in 1859 ? Let us 

 hear Mr. Darwin, who may be trusted always to state 

 the case against himself as strongly as possible. 



" On this doctrine of the extermination of an 



Y 



